Taxmen conduct pan-India raids on shell firms, black money

New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) The Income Tax department today launched multiple raids in various prominent cities against shell company operations on charges of alleged black money generation worth over Rs 100 crore.

This is the second consecutive day that the taxman has undertaken country-wide searches after the black money declaration window of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY) closed on March 31.

The tax sleuths raided seven premises of a Mumbai-based jeweller and his associates which had made cash deposits worth Rs 6 crore post-demonetisation.

The taxman also searched 25 premises of a Hyderabad- located chit fund company which is said to have made cash deposits worth over Rs 80 crore post the notes ban.

It has also conducted searches and surveys against real estate players and other business firms in and around Delhi as part of its crackdown against black money.

The action included surveys against entities and businesses linked to Anand Kumar, brother of BSP chief Mayawati.

"Over a 100 shell firms are under the scanner of the department as part of all these operations being conducted today. It is estimated that over Rs 110 crore black money is prima facie generated by these entities under the scanner," a senior officer said.

The department also conducted similar operations at 33 locations in Chennai and adjoining areas and also searched Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar and few others.

The department had yesterday conducted searches at over 50 locations as part of its crackdown against black money to the tune of over Rs 100 crore, its first major action after the closure of the PMGKY scheme.

The scheme allowed black money holders to declare their illegal wealth and come clean by paying a tax and penalty of about 50 per cent on the undisclosed income till March 31.

A senior officer of the department had said that with the closure of the PMGKY window, all those cases where black money and tax evasion have been detected will be covered aggressively by undertaking such actions.